


Be Okay

by Sarahastro



Series: Tales from Starfleet Academy [1]
Category: Star Trek: New Frontier, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Gen, Starfleet Academy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-13
Updated: 2013-10-13
Packaged: 2017-12-29 08:00:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1002938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarahastro/pseuds/Sarahastro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kathryn Janeway returns to Starfleet Academy to repeat her fourth year and finds herself rooming with Elizabeth Shelby, also repeating her fourth year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Be Okay

**Author's Note:**

> Elizabeth Shelby's time at the Academy, her relationship with Mackenzie Calhoun, and her performance during the Kobayashi Maru all come from the Star Trek: New Frontier novels, particularly _Stone and Anvil_. Kathryn Janeway's reaction to her father's death comes from the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Coda." My version is not compatible with Jeri Taylor's novel _Mosaic_ , which places her father's death while Kathryn is an ensign. When I worked out the timeline for myself, it made more sense to me to place it during her fourth year at the Academy, which would then require her to repeat her last year.
> 
> The title comes from the song "Be OK" by Ingrid Michaelson.

_August 2358_

 

Kathryn Janeway beamed to Starfleet Academy alone. Her mother had offered to come with her, but the thought of arriving at the Academy with her mother was too embarrassing. It was bad enough that she was starting her fourth year at the Academy for the second time.

Maybe she was imagining the stares and whispers as she strode across campus. But then again, maybe not. The Academy was a small place, small enough that everyone probably had heard about her -- Edward Janeway's daughter, who spent a week in bed after her father died until her mother finally took her home. She forced herself to stand a little straighter as she marched to her dormitory. She was back now, and that was all that mattered. A year from now she would receive her commission and be assigned as a science officer aboard a starship on a deep space mission. She just had to stay focused.

When she arrived in her dorm room, her roommate was already there. Kathryn had done a double-take when she saw her room assignment. She and Elizabeth Shelby had started at the Academy the same year, so she should have graduated last year with the rest of their classmates, but for some reason Elizabeth was also still here. Kathryn wondered why, but she didn't know how to bring it up.

Instead she just stuck her hand out and said, "Hi, I'm Kathryn Janeway."

Elizabeth took it and smiled stiffly. "Elizabeth Shelby." Elizabeth was already wearing her Starfleet uniform, and Kathryn felt uncomfortable wearing civilian clothing. Shelby looked like the perfect cadet, not a wrinkle in her uniform or a hair out of place. She was almost done unpacking, and her half of the room was almost devoid of personal effects -- no knick-knacks or holos of her friends and family, just a small stack of pads on her desk. When she opened a drawer to put in some gym clothes (standard issue, of course), Kathryn saw nothing but a stack of uniforms.

Inwardly, Kathryn sighed. She had always thought of herself as a dedicated cadet, but Elizabeth was like a Starfleet robot. She felt embarrassed as she laid out holos of her parents and sister on her desk. She wondered how she could make it through a whole year rooming with someone so rigid and stiff.

It won't be so bad, she reminded herself. Elizabeth's side of the room was very neat and orderly, and she seemed pretty quiet. One of Kathryn's roommates had practiced the violin at all hours of the day, which had been a trying experience. Still, Kathryn was even more curious now why Elizabeth had to repeat her fourth year.

*****

Kathryn barely saw Elizabeth during the entire first week. They were both too busy to spend much time in their room. Kathryn had numerous meetings with various professors to arrange her schedule and some special projects. She had to repeat the classes that she had missed after her father died, but that left her with plenty of extra time, so she decided to fill it with an independent study project on black hole thermodynamics. She didn't know what Elizabeth was up to, but the few times she saw her she always had her nose stuck in a padd. After a week as roommates, Kathryn still barely knew anything about Elizabeth except that she was an engineering major. Elizabeth was always courteous, but her brisk manner didn't encourage Kathryn to pry any further than hello and good night.

Friday was the annual meet-and-greet for the first years. Kathryn had no intention of going and planned to spend a quiet evening in her room reading. She assumed Elizabeth would be out, either at the meet-and-greet or one of the many parties being thrown simultaneously by the upperclassmen. But instead, when Kathryn entered the room she found Elizabeth there pulling a bottle of alcohol out of the closet.

Elizabeth whirled around guiltily. "Oh. Uh, want some?" she asked.

It was real alcohol, and Kathryn rarely drank, but for some reason she said, "Okay."

Elizabeth grabbed some glasses and poured a healthy swig into each glass. "Sorry there's no ice."

Kathryn took one and gingerly took a sip. Her experience with alcohol was limited to wine, and it was stronger than she expected. She sputtered.

Elizabeth took a sip. "It's a gin martini. My ex-boyfriend Wex introduced me to it," she said.

Kathryn took another sip, careful to hold her breath this time. It didn't burn quite as badly. "Vincent Wexler?" she asked. She remembered Wex from some of her classes -- talkative, British, always walking a fine line between being annoying and charming. She never would have expected him or Elizabeth Shelby to be such rule breakers. The girl even slept in Starfleet-issued pajamas -- electric blue pants (the same color as the standard-issue underwear, why was Starfleet so fond of that terrible color) and a gray shirt. Kathryn felt unbelievably old-fashioned by comparison in her pink nightgown.

"What about you?" Elizabeth asked as she took a sip. "Do you have a boyfriend?"

Kathryn shook her head. "My last roommate thought I was a monk. She said I was wasting my youth."

She meant it as a joke, but Elizabeth nodded seriously. "I think you have the right idea," she said. "When I came to the Academy, I was dating Wex. And then after first year I went right from him to Mackenzie Calhoun. Now I'm still here, and they're both on assignment." She sighed and took a healthy swig from her drink.

Kathryn didn't know what to say. She didn't want to pry, and yet part of her wanted to know more.

"I just got lost," Shelby continued. "Mac just swept me away, and I -- " Shelby drained her glass, then got up and poured herself another. "On our survival training, I was playing in the ocean and a creature pulled me under the water. I almost drowned, but Mac jumped in and saved me. He had only learned to swim a few months ago after coming to the Academy."

Kathryn felt a flair of jealousy and finished the rest of her drink. No one had ever loved her that much. She closed her eyes and lay down on her bed as the room began to spin. "How did you learn to drink like this?" she asked.

"Oh, Wex and I started sneaking drinks at our parents' parties a long time ago," Shelby said. "My parents were always dragging me to some party thrown by a Starfleet family. I don't think I ever saw you at any of them though."

"My mother thought they were a bad influence," Kathryn said.

Kathryn thought Elizabeth might be insulted, but instead she just laughed. "Your mother was right."

"So why are you still here?" Kathryn blurted out.

There was a long pause, and Kathryn wondered if Elizabeth would actually answer. "There was an incident with the Kobayashi Maru," Elizabeth finally said. "Mac was in command, and I -- well, I didn't agree with his solution, so I refused to obey his orders and then hit him." She smiled grimly. "Afterwards the committee pointed out that if it had been a real starship, I would have been court martialed for mutiny."

"So they made you repeat the year?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "That was my decision. They said I could still graduate, but my evaluation from the Kobayashi Maru would be very bad. That they'd have to write that I let my personal involvement with another cadet override my duty. It was my decision to repeat my fourth year. I may not have good recommendations for command, but if I take some extra engineering courses and do some special projects I can still get a good posting as an engineer." She smiled a little sadly. "Plus I won't have Mac to distract me this time." She looked at Kathryn curiously. "I'm kind of surprised you hadn't heard about this. I thought everyone was talking about how I freaked out during the Kobayashi Maru."

"I didn't really know that many other cadets," Kathryn admitted, "especially not cadets on the command track. Plus that was after my father died." She hadn't planned to bring it up, and she immediately wished she could take back the words.

But Elizabeth just nodded and said, "Yeah, I heard about that." Kathryn was afraid Elizabeth would ask her about it, but instead she just said, "Do you have any special plans for this year? I mean, you only have one semester to make up. You could probably do a special project or pursue an extra qualification or something."

Kathryn nodded. "I'm doing a project with Professor Bekenstein on black hole thermodynamics," she said, "and I ended up signing up for some engineering classes, although I'm not really an engineer, I just had an extra spot in my schedule."

"I can help you," Elizabeth offered. "Actually I ended up signing up for a class in Temporal Mechanics for pretty much the same reason. We can help each other."

"Okay." Kathryn closed her eyes. "I think I need to go to sleep," she said.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just -- just need some sleep." The world wobbled a bit when she sat up, but then thankfully settled back down.

Elizabeth put their empty glasses back into the replicator and got them two glasses of water. "Drink this. Otherwise you'll regret it in the morning."

"Thanks," Kathryn said. Maybe this year wouldn't be so bad after all.


End file.
